decastell.com Doing and documenting one meaningful thing per day

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The Quest: Go visit a church service and see what it feels like.

I haven’t been to a Sunday church service since I was a little kid. I decided to check out the Unitarian Universalist church in Vancouver. Unitarian Universalist is what you get if you take one of those quizzes about which religion you should follow and you happen to not have any real ideas of what’s out there. One of their core tenets is that everybody has to have the right to figure out what they believe, therefore, the church has no theology to speak of (you can believe in one god, many gods…etc.)

The service was very community-oriented and generally humanist in outlook. The word ‘god’ wasn’t uttered once. The hymns they sing are all about being together, searching for truth…etc. 

Here’s what I noticed:

• It was interesting to see the effort to have at least some formal rites (such as the lighting of a flame before the beginning and the extinguishing of the flame at the end) inside of something that has no formal theology or dogma.
• The audience was varied, but pretty much exclusively white.
• I felt like it was a positive, non-threatening environment.
• I felt creeped out. This isn’t their fault - I think I just don’t feel connected to a community of any kind. 

The Quest: Try to keep going for a little while past your comfort zone.

I fell off my bike on the way back from Victoria and still had 25Km to go. Normally I’d have tried to catch a bus or find some other solution but I decided to tough out the scraped knee. It wasn’t bad at all!

Things I observed:

• Always, always bring polysporin or another anti-biotic and bandades!
• Always, always have a bike repair kit or tool with you!
• Always bring handy-wipes with you!

The Quest: Try going on a shamanic journey and see what you observe.

I took a workshop in Victoria on shamanism. Turns out I’m pretty bad at it. Thank goodness someone brought back my power animal for me or I’d be without one!

The Quest: Try doing a tarot card reading and see what you observe.

I first read Tarot cards when I was about 8 years old. While I was in Victoria I did it again for the first time in years.

The Quest: Go on a short trip by yourself that involves some physical and mental challenges.

I traveled on my own in the past but in the past fifteen years I’ve always been traveling either with my wife or with other people. Basically, any complicated decisions or planning have always been handled by someone else and the limits of the challenges have always been defined by what other people could handle. So I took a trip to Victoria on my bicycle. Sounds simple, but there’s actually more planning and timing required than I’m used to.

Things I observed:

• Having to worry about directions definitely makes it more stressful to ride. 
• The Skytrain bridge between South Vancouver and Richmond is really cool.
• It’s always amazing how fast bicycles actually go. I wasn’t riding all that fast but I was still going about 1/2 speed of most cars.
• Having the enforced break of the ferry trip kind of makes things harder.
• The George Massey Tunnel shuttle is nuts. Just make a pedestrian bridge over it for goodness’ sake.

Quest: Get an alternative therapy treatment such as acupuncture and see if it’s as bad as you feared.

Being someone who doesn’t like needles (mind you, who does like needles?) I’ve never had acupuncture before. So when I went to the physiotherapist and he asked if he could jab me with some needles to release pressure in my shoulder I decided that would be my cool thing of the day.

I didn’t find it painful, just a bit strange. As he put the needles in my shoulder the muscle would give a little jump as if it was popping. Not sure if it’ll produce results but according to the physiotherapist it can reduce the time it takes to restore proper rotational flexibility to my shoulder by two-thirds.

The Quest: Attend a class in something that makes you a little uncomfortable. Be open and positive throughout the experience.

I really don’t like yoga. I’m not very flexible in my hamstrings and I’ve never been very comfortable with static poses. To top it off, I get irritated by people talking about energy, chakras, chi, and chanting. So going to a ninety-minute yoga class isn’t something I’d normally do. However I saw an invitation on Facebook for a class in Dragon Dance Yoga and thought it might be a good challenge.

The session was indeed challenging, both physically and mentally, but overall it was a great workout. I’m still not sold on yoga classes, but I felt good about trying something different.

The Quest: Write to someone famous or that you admire, tell them why you admire them, and ask them to write back.

I don’t think I’ve ever a fan letter in my life. It always seems a bit gauche and it’s hard to imagine it having much meaning. But recently I’ve been trying to track down a copy of a book called “Bard V - Felimid’s Homecoming” by Australian author Keith Taylor. The book was never released in Canada, and some bugger borrowed my copy of the first book and never returned it. The novel had a big impact on my when I first read it just after graduating from high school. The author isn’t particularly famous - you have to do a bit of digging to find him, but he is still alive and living in Australia after a long illness.

So here’s part of what I wrote:

Dear Mr. Taylor,

I found your e-mail address online through a google search that led me to the Cimerrian blog and wanted to write you a quick e-mail.

I was a huge fan of the original Bard novel - I can still remember the precise moment where I started reading it. I had just recently graduated from high school and was camping by myself on Saltspring Island here in British Columbia in a broken tent and wandering around in an old leather jacket (hadn’t learned the advantages of proper camping gear yet.) Having missed my ferry back to the mainland, I was sitting on a rock waiting for the next one and counting the minutes. I pulled out a copy of your book that I’d purchased a few days before from my shabby and torn backpack and started reading. Two hours later I only reluctantly put the book back in my bag to board the ferry - I was hooked. Never before nor since have I read a story that so compellingly brought to life the idea of a bard and the intersection of magic, music, and journeying. The book was, in fact, one of the reasons I took up the guitar and became a professional musician.

I’ve been trying to track down a copy of Bard V - Felimid’s Homecoming, for some time. From what I understand it was never released here in Canada or in the United States. I’m surprised the publisher hasn’t put them out in e-book format as I think they would do well. If you have any suggestions on where I might find a copy of Bard I and Bard V I would much appreciate the advice.

I understand from your author page on the blog that you had faced illness and were now returning to write. I hope you do so and in either case wish you all the best.